Washington Post: South Sudan’s man-made famine demands a response
Editorial Board

“…By international standards, 42 percent of the population [of South Sudan] is now classified as ‘severely food insecure,’ an unprecedented level, and many are enduring the most severe trial of all, famine. By the peak of the lean season in July, nearly 5.5 million people could be in crisis. … South Sudan was already vulnerable to climate-related shocks to agriculture, but this crisis is largely man-made … Newly independent in 2011, South Sudan was split by a senseless and destructive civil war in 2013, and now the country is fragmenting into violence-racked shards that are impeding humanitarian aid, collapsing markets, disrupting traditional agriculture, and consigning millions to hunger and malnutrition. The United States, its allies, and the United Nations could have done more, and done it earlier, to stop the fighting, curtail the flow of weapons and bring about better conditions for humanitarian aid. … More [humanitarian aid] will be necessary, but just as important is stopping the violence that is driving more people into displacement and desperation and making it more difficult to help those who need it. The impetus rests on [South Sudan’s president, Salva Kiir,] first of all. He has rebuffed many appeals from Washington and elsewhere in recent years, but the United States must not abandon efforts to curb the fighting that is the man-made core of this expanding misery” (2/22).